H.R. 10492 — Wildland Firefighter Health and Safety Act

This section provides the short title of the Act as the “Wildland Firefighter Health and Safety Act” and sets forth its table of contents.

This section defines terms used in the Act, including the Advisory Panel, clean apparatus cab protocol, Health Strategy, Pilot Program, Program Director, Secretaries, support staff, Task Force, Wellbeing Program, and wildland firefighter.

This section establishes the Wildland Firefighter Health Task Force within the Department of the Interior, not later than 90 days after enactment, with representatives from at least nine specified agencies including the Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service, NIOSH, OSHA, and EPA. It also establishes a Wildland Firefighter Health Advisory Panel with at least two current wildland firefighters, two former firefighters, and experts in cancer medicine, industrial hygiene, and other fields to advise on a Health Strategy that the Task Force must develop and update every three years.

This section establishes the Federal Wildland Firefighter Health and Wellbeing Program, administered by a director appointed by the Secretary of the Interior in coordination with the Secretary of Agriculture within 90 days of enactment. The program assesses occupational risks from wildfire smoke and hazardous exposures, implements exposure reduction controls and monitoring technologies, requires baseline and annual medical exams including cancer screenings, provides training on respiratory protection, authorizes pilot projects and grants for protective equipment, and mandates minimum staffing of one full-time employee at each regional office and four at the national level with expertise in occupational health, industrial hygiene, and related fields.

This section establishes a permanent Office of Firefighter Health and Safety within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, administered by an Associate Director. The Office identifies and prevents emerging hazards for structural and wildland firefighters, awards competitive grants and contracts for protective equipment and technology testing, conducts longitudinal exposure and health-outcome research, develops contamination-control criteria and respiratory-protection standards, implements exposure-tracking systems, and submits biennial reports to the House Education and Workforce Committee and the Senate HELP Committee on certified technologies and medical conditions for presumptive coverage under the Federal Employees’ Compensation Act. It coordinates priorities with the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture.

This section requires the Secretary of Labor, through OSHA, to issue an interim final standard within 180 days after submission of the report under section 5(b)(5) that mandates employer health protection plans and respiratory protection for wildland firefighters, bypassing standard rulemaking procedures but requiring 30 days of public comment. It further directs a proposed final standard within 2 years and a final standard within 5 years that must include engineering controls, exposure monitoring, medical surveillance, training on smoke and heat illness, PFAS reduction, and decontamination equipment, with both standards taking effect within 30 days of issuance.

This section establishes a special claims handling unit in the Office of Workers' Compensation Programs to process and adjudicate claims from employees in fire protection activities, requires personnel to receive training on firefighting duties and exposures, and mandates timely claims processing in coordination with the Federal Wildland Firefighter Health and Wellbeing Program and NIOSH. It requires annual public reports with aggregate data on claim filings, acceptances, denials, time-to-decision metrics, physician opinions, and systemic issues. It eliminates the requirement that an illness or disease be diagnosed within 10 years after the last date of employment for the presumption of work-related causation to apply.

This section requires the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior to provide regular duty time, counted as hours of work for pay and benefits, to covered wildland firefighters—including permanent, seasonal, temporary, and emergency personnel—for showering and hygiene after exposure to smoke, ash, PFAS, or other contaminants; cleaning personal protective equipment and clothing; and decontaminating vehicles and workspaces. It also directs the Secretaries to equip each duty station, fire cache, and regularly staffed facility with dedicated decontamination infrastructure, including washing and drying equipment, designated cleaning areas, hot and cold showers, wastewater handling, and replacement PPE, within 2 years of enactment, with mobile capability for remote operations.

This section requires the Comptroller General to evaluate the Wellbeing Program every two years for six years, beginning no later than two years after enactment. The studies must assess program goals and performance, interagency collaboration, leadership commitment, respiratory equipment standards and availability, decontamination protocols, exposure monitoring, related standards and claims processing, and funding allocation, with reports due to the House Natural Resources and Education and the Workforce Committees and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources and Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committees within one year of each study.